Price: $14
Size: 42 x 5 (Marevas/Petit Corona)
Box: Cab of 50
Paired with: Warm Coffee
Por Larranaga Petit Corona is arguably one of the best Cuban Petit Coronas which offers great quality, balance and value. This little stick like all Por Larranagas ages extremely well and you can notice its progress month over month. Tonight I decided to review this cigar while walking in the park enjoying the first snow of the year in Toronto and sipping on a nice warm coffee.
Pre-light:
Construction is flawless and the cap clips very clean. Triple cap held really nice and very visible. Draw was perfect and offered the right amount of resistance before the torch.
First Third:
Cigar toasted evenly and started very flavorful but in the mild range. Great amount of smoke was coming through with each puff. I immediately tasted sweetness mixed with some woody undertone and burn continued to be perfect.
Second Third: Burn was going great and now I was getting real Cuban tobacco taste combined with sweetness and woodsy flavors were slowly fading away and getting replaced with a touch of black pepper.
Final Third: Burn was going off a little bit due to the wind and snow blowing away but cigar kept correcting its own mistakes and continued to show its might as an excellent Cuban cigar. By this point I was getting toasty sweetness and good amount of pepper. It was really hard to put this cigar down as I kept wanting more.
Conclusion: I think Por Larranaga Petit Corona is a delicious everyday smoke which can work for you anytime of the day. Its a great morning cigar or just for relaxing after a hectic day at work. I strongly recommend this cigar for beginners or seasoned smokers. This cigar is great out of the box but I still recommend aging them as they perform much better with few years of age. Happy smoking.
What a night. A room full of cigar lovers, Cuban relief effort supporters and best of all four new excellent 2008 releases to smoke. Cuban Hurricane Relief Dinner Event was held in Toronto as a private event for $250 per person. The event started with everyone receiving a warm welcome at the door and a box containing three limited edition cigars and one new release for 2008. Cigars were: Cuaba Pyramid 2008, Montecristo Sublime 2008, Partagas Serie D No. 5 and Serie P No.2 Tubo.
It was really nice to smoke indoors with so many aficiniados who are together for the same cause. I met a few CigarBunch.com website fans. It was really nice to spend sometime with them talking cigars and nothing but cigars.
There was a silent auction held for everyone to put down their name and price they are willing to pay. Few interesting items which you will see in the video was a box of 25 Edmundo Dantes El Conde 109s and Montecristo B, 100th anniversary humidor with 50 cigars.
One other interesting item was 2008 Habanos Festival cigar sampler box.
Click here to view a short video of the silent auction
After silent auction was closed Stuart one of the CigarBunch.com fans and a true aficioniado was the lucky winner of Edmundo Dantes El Conde 109s. Congratulations.
Edmundo Dantes El Conde 109
This event was one of best cigar events held in Toronto with the help and support of most cigar stores in Toronto. I hope we can make a change even though small with Cuban hurricane relief efforts.
Price: $24
Size: 50 x 6.2 (Toro)
Box: Dresses Box 25 of Cab of 50
Paired with: Ice water
H. Upmann Magnum 50 was originally released in 2005 as a limited edition and following its success it was re-released in 2008 as a regular production at 2008 Havana Cigar Festival. This is a big cigar with decent construction.
Pre-light: This cigar has a nice aroma and the wrapper is almost reddish brown. Cap clipped nicely and the draw was perfect. This cigar has a secondary band displaying the magnum 50.
First third: Cigar started very earthy and some woody notes were noticed. It really has the “old school” Cuban taste. It produced ton of smoke and finish was pleasant tobacco taste and the h.upmann flavor was difinately there.
Second third: Second third continued to be enjoyable but dry at some times. Burn was off a little and couple of touch ups was required. It still produced allot of smoke but base flavors kept fading away and coming back due to young age and lack of time to get balanced in the humidor.
Final Third: Cigar was producing less smoke and at this point I realized that this cigar needs some serious aging to balance it self in terms of burn and flavor. I think it has tremendous potential.
Conclusion: H. Upmann Magnum 50 is a mild Cuban cigar which mostly has tobacco and earthy flavors. Its not a fair judgement to review this cigar this young and it difinately requires 2 to 3 years to become a great smoke.
Ramon Allones Specially Selected has a bog number of followers and is one of the best and most complex Cuban cigars available for a very reasonable price. They have been my long time favorite which never fail to impress. Ramon Allones Specially Selected have a great start and a complex taste throughout the cigar with notes of cedar/sweetness with delicious earthy undertone. You have to leave them to age for few years but they are also great outside of the box. They come in dress box of 25 and cab of 50.
After opening a couple of boxes of Cohiba Siglo IV I noticed how the same cigar coming from two different factories and packaged in the same month can have such a difference in wrapper color. From light blond to dark chocolate but both have their own beauty and I am glad to be able to taste them both and see which one has a better taste at the end of the day. Here are a couple of pictures.
It is estimated that hurricane Ike and Gustav have resulted in 5 billion dollars worth of damages in Cuba. In their hour of need, Havana House has felt it necessary to respond.
In conjunction with The Dubois Charitable Foundation, Havana House will be hosting a Benefit Dinner with 100% of proceeds going towards the rebuilding of affected areas.
Date: Monday November 3, 2008
Time: Cocktails 7:00 pm – Dinner 7:30 pm
Place: Oregano Ristorante, 3650 Langstaff Rd, Woodbridge
Price: $250.00 (charitable receipts will be issued for a portion of the ticket price)
Drinks: Cash Bar
During the evening we will get the opportunity to enjoy 4 new cigars recently launched by Cuba in 2008. These cigars include the following: Cuaba Piramide Ltd Edition, Montecristo Sublime Ltd Edition, Partagas Serie D No. 5 Ltd Edition and the Partagas Serie P No. 2 Tubo.
Tickets can be purchased through Havana House and at most Specialty Tobacconists throughout Southern Ontario.
If you are unable to attend, cash donations would be greatly appreciated. Cheques can be
made out to The Dubois Foundation, c/o Hurricane Relief Dinner.
After two devastating storms hitting Cuban cigar industry one after another and destroying 3,414 barns where the harvested tobacco was being cured and damaging another 1,590 when they ripped through the western province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba needs 5 million dollars to repair the damage and the news is out that the cigar supply in 2009 will not be effected since they have a big reserve of material. But what’s important is the future supply of Cuban cigars are unknown and it heavily depends on how fast the can re-invest and the recovery can take place.
HAVANA CULTURA Festival is in town and it seems like the perfect opportunity for a us to get together and take part in the Cuban festivities. Havana Cultura Festival runs from Thur. Sept 25th to Sun. Sept 28th across Queen Street West in the heart of Toronto Cuban art district.
I propose a get-together on Saturday September 27th at The Parkdale Drink Restaurant where there will be a Cigar Rolling event starting at 5 PM. We can then light up a cigar and enjoy a fine Mojito on their outdoor patio with other CigarBunch.com members. This is a PUBLIC event, so feel free to purchase your own drinks.
Ike was one of worse hurricanes Cuban cigar industry has seen in many years. Report say hurricane Ike destroyed a substantial amount of Cohiba cigar-wrapper crop and there are predications that prices will increase due to temporary shortage of these prime cigar-wrappers. It is very unfortunate that Cohiba was affected since they had the best production ever in 2006, 2007 and 2008. If you don’t have any of these past 3 year’s production, my recommendation is to start stacking up, because they will soon be classics as they are the best cigars produced in years.
King of Robustos
Cohiba Robusto Cab 25, 2007 Production
Have you heard of Mr. Stinky? He really exists. The maker of famous Stinky Ashtrays.
Stinky introduced these ashtrays a few years back and since then it has become the top favorite ashtray for serious cigar smokers around the world. They come in two sizes and the bigger size is called the Herf Edition which fits almost 1300 cigars. Its a great ashtray specially when you have your poker nights or cigar buddies over and its nice not to have to empty the ashtray few times a night.
